Millworks opens tomorrow!

Millworks 1.0 officially opens tomorrow at TAN Cofee @ 992 Queen St. W. in Toronto (North east corner of Ossington & Queen). I am excited about the exhibit, as this is the first public showing (aside from flickr) of my historic mills project. All of the works are for sale, if you are interested in a piece, please contact me at lxdesign@rogers.com for information. Please also feel free to contact me if you would like more background info on any of the sites that I have visited or would like to see more of my historic mill project.

Chaffey's Mill

I was contacted by the owner of Chaffey's Mill recently on flickr. I was very surprised, as I am sure many owners of the mills have possibly taken notice by now that I am doing this project.

I wasn't sure about Chaffey's Mill, as the two times that I was there, nobody was home. Anyhow, I am glad I did get the picture that I did, as I was informed that the roof is going to be redone this year with a new copper roof. Chaffey's Mill is a wonderful site, also coupled with a lock part of the Rideu system.

MILLWORKS is coming!

Are you getting excited to see my new exhibit opening at TAN Coffee at 992 Queen St. W. this coming Friday? Well, I certainly am. Last night I got a lot of work done in preparation for the show, and I am looking foward to hanging the show on Thursday. I hope that everyone who comes to see my work, will like the images. I tried to choose a cross section of images which best represents my project. I hope this will be just the beggining, with future opportunities to exhibit more of my work from this project. I am also happy to announce, that my friend Toni and I were recently accepted into the Queen West Art Crawl for 2009. We will have a 10'x20' booth displaying our work again, with images available for sale in greeting cards, prints of different sizes, and framed works. If you have any questions or are interested in seeing some samples of my work, please feel free to contact me anytime at lxdesign@rogers.com

CONTACT is coming!

The 2009 edition of CONTACT - Toronto's photography festival is coming soon. The festival runs during the month of May every year in Toronto. This year, I regret that I was a little broke, and wasn't able to afford to pay the fee to enter, but I am very happy to announce that I am still exhibiting a solo collection of works at TAN Coffee in Toronto (992 Queen St. W.) at Queen W. & Ossington Ave.

My show entitled "Millworks 1.0" will be the first time I am exhibiting a collection of images dedicated to my Historic Mills Of Ontario project. A project which I have been very passionate about for the last year. The collection will feature new work, and images which can be seen on my flickr site. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lxdesign/sets/72157604234545704/. I am planning to exhibit both traditional C-prints, as well as canvas prints. I am going to be spending a lot of time this coming weekend to select the images, and I have to get cracking as of Monday next week to produce the prints. Its always a fun and creative process getting ready for a show.

While I am not having any kind of formal opening or reception, I would invite people to come by on Friday May 1st to see my show. I will be available from 4-6pm at the coffee shop to answer any quesitons about the work. I can also be contact by email at: lxdesign@rogers.com

Film Is Not Dead!

Film is not dead... today I went to Downtown Camera Inc. and dropped off 3 rolls of E6 (slide film), and 1 roll of black and white. All shot on my Pentax 6x7 medium format camera. I can't wait to see the results! There is always something magical about shooting film, and getting it processed, opening up the roll, and taking a look at it on a light table. The gratification of nailing the exposure, getting the technical things just right, and coming home with winning images. I can't describe the satisfaction when an image moves you.

I am also anxious to get out and start using my 4x5 monorail camera again. Back in August of 2008, I dropped the holder which houses the ground glass of the camera. This is an essential part of the camera, as this is where focus is confirmed, before sliding in the film holder. Without the ground glass, you can't focus or compose the shot. I got a quote from Vistek to replace it, but the price is not right. I am looking into an alternate supplier.

As much as I love the digital world.... viva la film!

Trip to Brockville & PEC

Happy Easter to everyone! I had a very busy Easter weekend which started on Thursday last week with a very late night drive to Brockville. I stayed overnight with my friend at her parent's house, and we spent the majority of Good Friday exploring mills and light houses from Brockville to Alexandria (just past Cornwall). We saw many good mills during our exploration. Some of the locations were not accessible, so plans for a future trip are definately in the works. Saturday we spent the day heading back towards Toronto, but stopping at many more locations again. One of the towns (Newburgh), turned out to be a treasure trove of mills! Indicated as a small dot in the Historic Mills Of Ontario book, this was definately a hot spot. We counted somewhere in the range of 5-6 mills in this area. Some were ruins, and the remainder are private homes. I am planning to return again, and photograph this collection of mills.

On Sunday, we headed out again. This time, our plan was to head towards Prince Edward County. The plan was to visit Scott's Mill, and the Glenora Mill. The only two locations indicated in the "Historic Mills Of Ontario" book. As it turns out - there are many more than we expected. We found a number of mill locations aside from the Glenora and Scott's mill. The highlight of the day however, was the visit to Scott's Mill. As it turns out, we happened to visit PEC on the same day that the Rotary Club of Picton was hosting a waterfalls tour. Scott's mill happens to be located not more than 500 feet from a beautiful waterfall in PEC. One that I didn't even know about. Most of the waterfalls in PEC are located on private property. The highlight was the fact that the mill was open to the public - something which is rare, as it now belongs to the conservation authority who are working on a possible restoration project of the mill. We had an excellent weekend. I will be posting pictures to flickr in the next few days. I will update the blog when that is done.

Heading east for the weekend

With the long weekend coming up, I decided that it would be a great weekend to get outside and continue the mill photography project. So this weekend, I am heading east with a friend to explore historic mills from Kingston to Cornwall, and north up the Ottawa corridor. There lots of mills in this section of Ontario, with the Rideu river and other river systems providing perfect locations for milling communities in the mid-late 1800's. I am looking forward to exploring this area. One of the mills close to Kingston is the Babcock Mill (seen above).

Welcome To The Sweeney Images Blog!

I am completely new the world of blogging! Welcome to the start of my new blog! Here I will be posting information on my work, what I have been up to, new collection of images available. I look forward to updating you in the weeks/months and years to come.

David